Here's a good sign - while looking around on the new TheWB.com, I got totally sucked into watching a random episode of Veronica Mars.

That's what this site is all about: nostalgia for the shows that ran on that TV network from 1995 until its death-by-merger (with UPN, to become The CW) in 2006. Some of them are modern classics. Currently available for viewing are full episodes of Angel, Babylon 5, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Everwood, Firefly, Gilmore Girls, The Loop, MADtv, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Roswell, Smallville, and Veronica Mars.Friends is available because Warner Brothers made it for NBC and the site needs at least one bona fide hit. (Fine, but where in the creek is Dawson? Felicity? Charmed? Supernatural? Popular? 7th Heaven? Jamie Foxx Show? Unhappily Ever After ?? I'd like to see some Tiny Toons and Batman: The Animated Series, as well. )

The site does currently carry a couple of Australian shows ( Blue Water High and Dangerous), and beginning September 8 will carry the Web-only Sorority Forever, produced by McG and staring Jessica Rose, formerly of lonelygirl15.

But who cares, when you can watch the free classic eps of Joss Whedon's signature shows and the utterly brilliant Veronica Mars? (Yes, I've mentioned it three times. The show is that good.) I'm sad to see that the site is inconsistent with how many episodes of each its offering (five from season one for most, though all of season one of V. Mars is available, thankfully). No worse than Hulu's policy of taking down entire seasons of shows after a while... when will we all be able to just watch what we want ala cart online whenever we want, without the games?

You're not limited to just watching. The site offers an Adobe Premiere Express interface called WBlender to remix bits of the shows into new clips. Maybe it's finally time for that Gilmore Girls meets Roswell crossover the world's been clamoring for. You can also search shows for bits of dialogue, like Chandler Bing's "big head" inner monologue.

The busy interface needs some work, but ultimately the site is a example of what other TV networks - those that haven't partnered with Hulu, which certainly looks nicer - can do with their back catalog. Sell some ads and make those programs available. It's what the videophiles want.

Eric narrowly averted a career in food service when he began in tech publishing at Ziff-Davis over 20 years ago. He was on the founding staff of Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine (all defunct, and it's not his fault). He's the author of two novels, BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale"--Publishers' Weekly) and KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. He works from his home in Ithaca, NY.
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